SK9226 : Entrance to Easton Walled Gardens
taken 13 years ago, near to Easton, Lincolnshire, England
There had been a country estate at Easton since at least 1592 when Sir Henry Cholmeley (1562-1620) moved to Lincolnshire and bought the Manor of Easton. The Elizabethan house was built on a site overlooking the River Witham and, although much altered and enlarged over the years, the essential elements of the house are believed to have survived until the beginning of the 19th Century.
During the early Victorian period rebuilding and modernisation by Sir Montague Cholmeley, second baronet (1802-1874) brought the house up to date. The Hall was described in 1872 as “large and handsome, with elegantly furnished apartments, containing many valuable paintings and other works of art.”
At the start of the Second World War Easton Hall was requisitioned by the army and became home to units of the Royal Artillery and of the 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment for four years. As happened to many similar properties requisitioned across Britain, it suffered considerable damage both to the fabric of the building and to the remaining contents, to the extent that live rounds were let off inside the house and grenades were lobbed into the greenhouses as part of combat training.
After the house was handed back to the Cholmeley family it was never lived in as a family home again. After the lead was stolen from the roof, causing major deterioration of the fabric, the house was demolished in 1951 leaving only the Gate House and stables standing. The gardens, dating back to at least the mid 16th Century, were abandoned and by 1990 the roofs on the remaining buildings had fallen in. By 2000 the site of the house and gardens had become more of a woodland than garden with brambles, elder and sycamore completely obliterating the garden plan.
The revival of this "lost" garden has been spearheaded by Ursula Cholmeley and, in late 2001, 18 months of work to clear the site was begun. Tonnes of rubble and felled trees have been removed, the terraces restored, the Gate House and other associated buildings renovated and the greenhouses reinstated but, although the garden is open to the public and is a lovely place to visit, reconstruction work is expected to continue well into the 21st Century.